Cold Case Review of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier murder to proceed. **Threadbans in OP**

He would be the type who may want the last laugh.

Also, I don't think that Bailey knows something or is able to contribute to any cold case investigation, albeit he may be able to point into one or the other directions.

If he knew something he'd made it into money already, something he needs desperately, apparently, and that now, but not on his deathbed.

There are others cashing in, making documentaries and writing books.

Yes, I think so too.

I've read it as well. Suppose there is a positive match between the stain on the boot and the surviving Wollny family in Germany, it still wouldn't prove murder beyond reasonable doubt. The stain could have gotten there by other means. Suppose it was from a previous encounter? Wollny certainly can't be asked anymore..... Also did Wollny have any injuries ?

Suppose they find the poker / hatchet, and Wollny's DNA on there, as well as Sophie's blood, that'll be very clear, I'd say. The poker / hatchet has never been located, as far as I know.

Possible, and all the DNA and fingerprint evidence gone decades ago.

Not sure. What I find hard to believe is that a propper cold case review is possible in light of all that Garda cover up and corruption having taken place in the original investigation. I don't know but any kind of twist in this story might hurt their pride. The Garda would basically have to publically admit their f-up leading to the failure of solving this crime and they certainly don't like that.

The Guards probably talked to a few good people more, somebody in France, friends of friends here and there, maybe there is some minimal new evidence leading to a possible new theory, but nothing more. Now it's a bit late. Murderer or many who would be able to either provide an alibi are often long dead or their memory faded. Any kind of questioning and cross examination won't be anything serious anymore.

Where were you or any of us on any given night over 25 years ago and what do you remember of that specific night? I'd say any of us would be lucky if we even get the year right.

Yes, but this person had no witnesses and left nothing to trace it to him. Also this person might be dead by now as well.

Or it was put into a fire.

It's a bit hard to imagine this in this particular case.

It would be different, if say we actually had usable DNA or fingerprint evidence on the murder weapon, but so far were unable to match it to the killer. Lot's of cases get solved this way, even 20 or 30 years later on.

However in this case we've nothing solid, - plus a corrupt and possibly incompetent police force, or at least back then it was in this case.

Heresay won't lead to a conviction, at least not in Irland, but apparently in France.

Foreigners, French or possibly Mexicans driving rental or borrowed cars, various men, unshaven in dark coats loitering in alleyways and watching Sophie visiting a shop or somebody being out at Kealfadda bridge at odd hours of the night all certainly don't prove murder.

Yes, the "golden hours" were missed. The area should have been swamped with Gardaí on the Monday and the days and weeks afterwards.

I think Karl Heinz Wollny and the Frenchman named Pecout are only of interest to people like Nick Foster and Jim Sheridan, wanting to sell either books or documentaries. Maybe they killed Sophie in a drunken rage and sexual desire, it's possible, but I don't think that's what happened.

Drew Harris probably had this open and unresolved file in his office, and with a certain honesty and dignity felt, he had to follow up with a cold case review. A public excuse will most likely never happen. The pride for accepting their own mistakes are simply too high. The Bandon Garda station tapes alone should be enough to exonerate Ian Bailey completely.

To me personally a certain stigma remained: The Guards in rural South West of Ireland are either incompetent or corrupt, or even to most likely both.

There is the feeling of a slim chance that a blow-in is more at risk of a botched up investigation than a native to the region.

I bet that various blow-is either considered selling their property and most likely also some not only considered but really sold their property out of fear of possibly being blamed for something they didn't do. Furthermore, a blow-in's motivation to buy a property in the South West of Ireland would be seeking wilderness, calmness, country life and due to longer absences reliable and honest neighbors, and certainly no drug trafficking and guards apparently being in on it. It would only be a deduction which would happen naturally and that the blow-ins would consider again and again, if their purchase of a property in this area was the right decision in the first place, especially in light of all the events. But I neither have prove nor insight into this one.

But if the South West of Ireland was an entry to drug trafficking Sophie would not have been the only one noticing things. There would certainly have been others, those blow-ins who may have visited longer in any given year, with a similar experience or response with the Guards.

Don't know how the situation regarding drug trafficking is now in South West Ireland. I am only guessing the Guards are far more competent now and the chances of them being in on it, is way slimmer than in the mid 90s.

One other stigma also remained with me as well: The French judicial system. They convicted a man on hearsay and in absentia and lot's of reasonable doubt and absolutely no forensic evidence. Does an educated man, like Sophie's father ( he was a dentist in Paris ) really believe this? Or only pretend to do so?

I understand the hatchet or axe was small, with a wooden handle. From memory, based on what I’ve gleaned from Josephine Helen’s statements, the axe handle was red or painted red. It may have been disposed of in a fire, which would have destroyed the handle with the head of the axe then being found some time later among the ashes. My memory of this from the statements I’ve read is that an axe head was found in the remains of a fire by a neighbour of Ian Bailey who stated that she had not burned an axe in the fire and was suspicious as to how it came to be there. I understand this neighbour suspected Ian Bailey may have placed the item there. I believe it was handed over to the police at the time.

It's possible that the hatchet or the axe was actually the murder weapon, or used to deliver one or two of the initial blows and the cavity block was used later on? We don't know.

Also, did Sophie use the hatchet or axe to arm herself as she expected something like a danger, or did the murderer enter the house and take the hatchet or axe? We also don't know.